"Hope is a discipline." Mariame Kaba
I started my career as a journalist in Hong Kong covering art & design, travel and luxury lifestyles. After one too many editors rejected a social justice pitch, I began volunteering with the Asian Human Rights Commission and with them, quickly moved into human rights advocacy and a whole other world. Here I learned to help strategically amplify the courageous work of activists across Asia, in their countries and at the UN. The work - on issues of torture, extra-judicial killing and arbitrary detention - challenged unjust systems and saved lives.
Almost two decades later I have a Master's degree (proudly, with Distinction) from SOAS, London, in international human rights law and have worked with communities in over 25 countries, particularly in Asia and the UK, but also the Middle East, Europe, South and West Africa and the Former Soviet Union.
Key themes in my work have been discrimination and inequality, torture and disappearance, violence against women, labour exploitation and trafficking, reproductive rights, climate change and movement building.
My main aim is still to support activism. To do so I have taken on senior roles in grant making, policy advocacy, MEL and communications, both in-house and as a consultant. Please see my LinkedIn for more (link above, top right).
I still love to write and edit and will happily take on a writing or editing project in and outside of the human rights field. In 2023 I received an Arts Council to work on a book.
My inhouse employers have included UN Women, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, Anti-Slavery International, the Asian Human Rights Commission, Local Trust and Comic Relief.
My consulting clients have included Oxfam, Plan, DIGNITY - the Danish Institute Against Torture, Landell Mills for the EU, the OSCE, Penal Reform International, the UNDPPA, UN Women China and Asia-Pacific and the Thailand Institute of Justice. Please see more about my consulting work under Services or LinkedIn.